Lynn Fitz-Hugh on elder­ing:

The over cor­rec­tion for this was Friends large­ly have turned their back on this prac­tice. I regard this as too bad because from my point of view we are sad­ly lack­ing true elder­ing in mod­ern Meet­ings. We both lack Friends who are real­ly ground­ed in Quak­er prac­tice, we lack men­tor­ing for younger friends in every­thing from clerk­ing to giv­ing faith ministry.…but most impor­tant­ly we lack a real account­abil­i­ty when things go estray.

For­mal elder­ing requires a kind of con­nect­ed com­mu­ni­ty that I don’t see as much any­more and I can’t recall ever see­ing it in the wild. In my expe­ri­ence elder­ing has hap­pened when some­one I real­ly admire as a ground­ed soul ques­tions some­thing I’ve said or done. The weight of my respect for them makes me recon­sid­er my sure­ty and cock­i­ness. It can take months for me to process just their few words of obser­va­tion. It can be wonderful.